Separation medium and method for its preparation
OwnerDavid Buckley, Philippe Bussoninventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to a method of preparing a separation medium, which method comprises to provide a slurry of essentially spherical polymer beads in an aqueous solution of a natural polymer and contacting the slurry with an organic solvent in the presence of emulsifier to allow aggregation of the beads. In a preferred embodiment, the natural polymer is agarose. The present invention also encompasses a separation medium comprised of one or more aggregates, wherein each aggregate comprises a plurality of porous and essentially spherical polymer beads assembled by a porous gel.
Claims17
A method of preparing a separation medium comprised of at least one essentially spherical aggregate, comprising the steps of
- (a) providing a slurry of essentially spherical polymer beads in an aqueous solution of a natural polymer by heating to a temperature above the melting point of said natural polymer;
- (b) contacting the slurry from step (a) with an organic solvent in the presence of emulsifier to allow aggregation of the beads;
- (c) subjecting the resulting mixture to stirring;
- (d) cooling the stirred mixture to a temperature below the gel point of the natural polymer to gel the solution surrounding the beads and removing any excess of emulsifier;
- and, optionally,
- (e) sieving the aggregate(s) formed:
- wherein the resulting aggregate(s) each comprises a plurality of porous polymer beads assembled by a porous gel.
A separation medium comprised of one or more aggregates, wherein each aggregate includes a plurality of porous and essentially spherical polymer beads assembled by a porous gel and includes at least about 10 beads.
17-18. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.